making these investments for tax purposes, as we learned later. They needed losses. They actually couldn’t afford for the company to make a profit. Can you believe that?
Very easily. It’s not unique by any means. Now, from nineteen forty-eight until nineteen fifty-three, your husband and your brother went separate ways, is that correct?
Yes, sir. My husband was with Lockheed. He worked mainly on improvements in the mechanical components of the Constellation. The company was making two jet fighters at the same time-the F-80 and the F-94-but Charles had nothing to do with those. We lived in Burbank, near the plant. In the meantime my brother returned to Alaska and worked for the airline there-in Anchorage and sometimes in Seattle-until the Reds invaded South Korea. He was called up and went to Japan. During the Korean War my husband, in the meantime, left Lockheed and we moved a few blocks to a new apartment in Sherman Oaks. We both went to work for the Knute Special Effects Company. I worked in the office there. In fact, I kept my job there even after Harold and Charles set up their own company to restore airplanes for the movies.
That was ACA-Air Corps Associates?
That’s right. They started the company in nineteen fifty-four. It became one of the most successful aircraft companies in the world.
It lasted some fifteen years?
Mr. Skinner, the company still exists and is still an important company. It was founded by my brother and my husband.
Yes, ma’am. But they were frozen out of it in nineteen sixty-nine?
Yes. They were victimized by greedy businessmen, once again.
Well, as I understand it, there was a dispute about moving into the jet market. Didn’t that have something to do with it?
Yes, sir.
All right, Mrs. Ryterband. I certainly don’t want to open up old wounds of that kind.
I had expected this meeting to be much more painful than you’ve made it, Mr. Skinner. I do appreciate your kindness-you’ve been very gentle.
Well, I’m afraid the painful part is yet to come. Now, at the beginning of nineteen seventy the three of you moved back here to New York-actually to Long Island. Both your husband and your brother joined the staff of Aeroflight Incorporated, a company owned by Samuel Spaulding. Is that substantially correct?
Yes, sir. Sam Spaulding was an old friend of Harold’s from the war days. Quite honestly, he worshiped Harold.
So I understand. But there really wasn’t too much for Mr. Craycroft or Mr. Ryterband to do there, was there? They regarded themselves as superfluous much of the time, I’m told. This must have chafed them, didn’t it?
They kept busy, I can assure you. But it’s true they sometimes felt they’d been shunted onto the sidelines. My husband made several forays outside the company, looking for something more suitable.
I wasn’t aware of that.
Oh, my, yes. We visited Beechcraft, Cessna, Ryan, and the Hiller Company. He even went to Canada to be interviewed by an odd little company in Saskatchewan that is building working replicas of the old Ford Trimotors. Did you know that’s still the most efficient airplane of its kind? For its weight and capacity it’s still a good economical craft. That’s why they’re making them again. Harold and Charles contributed a great deal to the design of that plane, you know-back in the thirties.
Yes, ma’am. But I take it none of these job interviews panned out?
Until just a very few years ago, Mr. Skinner, the aviation industry was still in the hands of the giants. The pioneers. They were old men, but honorable and highly creative. But today there’s a new generation. Money men, businessmen. As they’re fond of saying, the accent is on youth. By nineteen seventy my husband was fifty-eight years of age. To put it bluntly he was too old. Too old! Good Lord, sir, Henry Ford was still active in his seventies!
Yes, ma’am. Now, in June of last year Samuel Spaulding died, and control of Aeroflight passed to your husband and your brother?
In a manner of speaking.
In a manner of speaking? Could you explain what you mean by that?
They weren’t free to operate the company according to their own judgment, Mr. Skinner. If they had been, I’m sure the company wouldn’t have failed. But they had the lawyers breathing down their necks. The executors looking over their shoulders. The stockholders and directors carping at them incessantly-actually filing applications for court orders to inhibit our plans for the company.
Still, Mr. Ryterband and Mr. Craycroft had a proxy from Mrs. Spaulding to vote her controlling stock in the company, didn’t they?
Only in theory. Only on paper. Every time they tried to put a policy into practice, the minority stockholders would go into court. Several times they obtained restraining orders to prevent us from making vitally necessary moves while they pressed in court for a declaration that Mrs. Spaulding was legally incompetent. They never succeeded with that perfidy, of course, but their delaying tactics ruined the company. They all blame Harold and Charles for it, but the truth is they’ve only themselves to blame. They were greedy, shortsighted, and vicious.
Nevertheless, the company went bankrupt. A Chapter Eleven was filed in December of last year, isn’t that the case?
There was no choice. The stockholders were stupid people, Mr. Skinner. They knew next to nothing about the aircraft business. They were Wall Street businessmen who had bought the stock over the counter and suddenly began to regard themselves as aviation experts. Their folly was abetted by the New York State courts, which we all know are among the most corrupt and stupid courts in the world.
Was that how Mr. Craycroft and Mr. Ryterband felt about it?
What do you mean?
Did they blame the failure entirely on the judges and the Wall Street investors?
New York City is a pesthole of evil, Mr. Skinner.
Aeroflight was a sound company until the New York businessmen bought into it. Naturally we blamed it on them-the businessmen and their robed henchmen on the judges’ benches.
That’s a bit melodramatic.
The truth sometimes is.
Yes, ma’am, I suppose it is. One could hardly quarrel with that, in the light of what’s happened subsequently.
In Washington.
Yes, and right here in New York. I’m referring to the incident with your brother’s bomber.
I’ve been waiting for us to get to that, Mr. Skinner. I’m completely prepared to discuss it with you. You needn’t wear kid gloves. I want to bring it out in the open-I want to try and make you understand it.
I appreciate how painful it must be for you, Mrs. Ryterband.
Thank you. And I appreciate your gallantry. There’s so little of it in the world anymore. Good manners cost nothing, yet so few people seem to be able to afford them nowadays.
Well, I think we both understand that this isn’t a criminal hearing, Mrs. Ryterband. Nobody is being accused of anything, not formally. Our sole purpose is to ascertain the truth. Therefore, you can see it wouldn’t serve any purpose for me to be ill-mannered.
You’re very modest, Mr. Skinner. But I don’t believe you’re being kind out of ulterior motives. You’re a gentleman at heart. I can always tell.
Well, thank you. But I’m afraid these next questions are going to be painful, no matter how gently I may word them.
You just go ahead and ask them. I’m a strong woman. I come from strong stock.
Very well. Now can you tell me if you had advance knowledge of their plans?
The scheme to get the money, you mean. Yes, they discussed it in my presence. But you must understand they were both dreamers. Particularly my brother Harold. He was always soaring on flights of fancy. I had no way of knowing they would actually put this one into practice. If I had known that in advance, I’m not sure what I’d have done, but I might have informed the authorities. I don’t say I would have, mind you. But I might have. I’ve asked myself what I would have done. But the truth is I just don’t know. I owed them both my loyalty. But, in spite of the
